We had a combined Meet-up of Gluten-free Delaware County, Philadelphia Gluten-free Potlucks, and Gluten-free Philadelphia recently at Sazon, 941 Spring Garden Street, 19123 in Philadelphia. Nearly a dozen of us met for Sunday brunch and the owners Robert and Judith were prepared for us and made additional adjustments to their already plentiful gluten-free options. The fare at Sazon is Venezuelan, and while one might (rightly) think steak, they also had many vegetarian options to choose from. My sandwich, pictured at the right, was the La Selva, a "Grilled Veggie Delight: portabella mushrooms, eggplant, green pepper, tomatoes, onion and spinach infused with cilantro pesto" for $9.00. It was a towering scupture of food, impossible to eat without dissassembly. I LOVE getting a lot of food for my order! The arepa, the corn "bun" that it was served on, was an excellent delivery vehicle for these freshly grilled veggies. And of course I ordered flan. On the recommendation of the server, I got the coconut flan. Most fabulous! Smooth, creamy, caramelly. Loved it. I also ordered a churo with chocolate sauce to take home to Jenn, who was holding down the household while I went on my gluten-free excursion. The churro, a fried dough sort of affair sprinkied with cinnamon and powdered sugar, is also gluten-free, made from yucca flour. Doughnutty delicious! I don't eat chocolate, but Sazon is known for theirs, made from actual Venezuelan cocoa beans. It smelled heavenly. Jenn liked the chocolate WITH the churro, but frankly admits that it is best appreciated with just a spoon. I highly recommend Sazon for safe and tasty gluten-free dining! Check 'em out. I'm happy to share this post from guest blogger Shanie Matthews, a freelance writer who focuses on writing on ways in which we can assist each other in developing our own highest potential. She is the founder and creator of a happiness advocacy website, www.MyHappyPath.com, which acts as a stage of introduction into the various ways we can increase personal joy.
Living with the pain, sickness and debilitation that comes with celiac disease are life changing. This shift in the way life is lived doesn’t have to be in the negative. Sure, having to remove gluten products from the diet can be frustrating. The thought of facing a condition that is “forever” is frightening. Working through fatigue, nausea and pain is taxing. But the tools that the challenges force us to bring into life, so that we may live a happier existence, help not only the disease at hand, but our overall quality of life. Here are three tools we can introduce into our lives that makes a challenge like living with celiac disease a blessing not a burden… Enjoy the Benefits of Yoga with Vocal Exhales: Yoga creates the opportunity to develop a pattern of creating a time that focuses on love for self. Yoga offers an ability to bring in an overall sense of calmness into one’s life. But it is in the breath that Yoga offers one its most beneficial aspects. It is with the exhalation and inhalation that Yoga supplies the conduit of pure joy that resides in all of us. Do a Little Meditation with a Smile on Your Face: Unfortunately, there tends to be a lot of seriousness that is attached to meditation that scares some away from doing the practice. But it truly is not something to be feared. Meditation, in reality, takes on many, many forms. This includes just sitting quietly with a happy smile on your face. Science, according to studies done at Harvard, is showing that visualizing changes our reality by actually increasing the capacity of the frontal lobe of the brain. The feelings associated with grinning from ear to ear do slowly infiltrate into and break up negative emotions. It might sound silly to some, but really, this easy way to create meditation assists in pulling ourselves out of a funk. Make a Gratitude List: Gratitude is one of the best practices to incorporate into life when facing challenges. The mind is only able to think one thought at a time. In the state of pain, or illness, if we shift our mind to being grateful about something that is attached to the challenge at hand, it helps the perspective to shift. The change allows a deeper understanding to unfold. Even if all you can be grateful for in the moment is the ability to breathe, this moment of gratitude gives the brain a moment to cognitively see how many fabulous, wonderful, great things are going on in life. Way too many, really, to be upset at all. Even in the face of disease. In another head to head test with typical kids, this time there is a CLEAR winner. The boys enjoyed one just fine, but truly disliked the other. I managed to add more milk and frozen greens and have it for MY dinner, since I mostly never met a gluten-free mac and cheese I couldn't find a way to like. Well, okay, so these two are the only boxed gluten-free mac and cheese I've ever had. But still. You get the point. As you may have gathered from my ecookbooklet, I add greens to lots of things. And as I promised my older son Corley, here is his website. He's 10. It has nothing to do with living gluten-free. http://mastermagicianslearnmagic.weebly.com Yesterday on my Happy Healthy Gluten Free facebook page (go here to "like" it!) I posted that the family was going to the Phillies game last night because my older son Corley (of gluten-free product video review fame) was going to be singing the national anthem with his school choir. We had another momentous trip to a Phillies game in 2008 in which we came up with a Ryan Howard homerun ball. That event is captured (forever, I hope) in the MLB video vault, so I sought it out and posted the link for everyone to enjoy. That baseball game was one of the most exciting and memorable events of my life. Watching the video revived all those feelings of fun and excitement. And I also think I had one of my best parenting moments -- you'll note at the end of the clip it was I who picked up the ball and I immediately thrust it in Corely's hands so that he got to be the big star on the Jumbotron. So fun! And I have a great story to go along with it if you ever want to hear it -- it goes a little far afield for the point I'm trying to make here. The point, you ask? There is evidence out there (I've read it and I'm looking for the source and will post it in a comment when I find it!) that indicates that looking at old pictures makes you happy. There is no way I can't smile when I look at the screen grab of Corley holding that baseball. Or when I look back through old facebook posts, or scroll through the pics on my phone when I'm standing in line at the post office, or when I get around to working on scanning our old photos that are in boxes in the basement. My friend Jeannine goes on photo walks, and she also posts pictures of her morning coffee of Facebook. We haven't talked about it specifically, but when I've tried to do something similar, the act of finding the right angle or staging the photo helps me look for and find the beauty in settings I might overlook otherwise. So, I think this type of mindful photography, in addition to looking at old snaps, can give a body boost to their mood. In this age of digital photography and cameras on phones, it doesn't cost anything extra. Worth a shot, right? |
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